Productivity measurement and improvements: A theoretical model and applications from the manufacturing industry

Paper in proceeding, 2013

This article concerns productivity improvement at factory floor level, i.e. at station, cell, or line level. At many companies, workers associate productivity or efficiency increase with something negative, it is interpreted as an increase in speed and the “sweat factor”. These misconceptions and lack of knowledge tend to put “a wet blanket” on all attempts to increase productivity in good times and productivity improvements are only discussed when the company is bleeding and at that time it’s often too late. For these reasons it’s important to clarify what productivity is and especially how it can be improved. In general, the productivity at shop-floor level can be improved through im-proving the method, increasing the performance, and increasing the utilization. The design of the products and the amount of scraped products also affects the productivity in both manual tasks as well as work performed by machines. These aspects of productivity will be elaborated in the theoretical model and the industrial applications presented in this article.